A report on January 26 revealed that the Chinese men's soccer team failed to advance to the knockout stage of the Asian Cup with two draws and one loss in the group stage. In the face of such an embarrassing record, an analysis article by Xinmin Evening News stated that Jankovic's coaching performance is in jeopardy and his departure seems to be just a matter of time.
The national team's ranking was finally set at 18th place, the worst record in the history of the Asian Cup. Looking back, the team had finished second twice, third twice, fourth twice, and eighth four times in 12 appearances, and its worst result was a group exit, but it still managed to end up at No. 9.
Since Jankovic took charge of the national team, he has never ceased to be controversial. In terms of his resume, he has only had coaching experience with the Serbian U21 national team, and at the club level, he has only briefly served as the head coach of Red Star Belgrade and Standard Liege, among others. Lack of adult national team and five big league first-tier club coaching background, not to mention the Asian coaching experience, Jankovic is undoubtedly a "three no manager". Among foreign coaches, his credentials are perhaps the thinnest.
Yankovic has been in charge for almost a year now, and before the Asian Cup, he led the team to participate in a number of warm-up matches and enjoyed more than 20 days of intensive training in preparation for the tournament. However, the team's tactical system has always been puzzling. According to Xinmin Evening News, although the players' strength is average, the coach's responsibility is to select the best players, formulate tactics to make up for the shortcomings, and reflect his own philosophy in the game. Obviously, Yankovic has not achieved this goal.
With the March 2021 World Cup qualifiers approaching, the CFA is running out of time. It is widely believed in the industry that given the importance of the World Qualifier, the new head coach of the national team is likely to be a foreign coach familiar with China's top league. Shandong Taishan's Cui Kangxi, Zhejiang's Qiaodi and Chengdu Rongcheng's Xu Zhengyuan are among the favorites, but their interest in the national team coaching position and their ability to take on this challenge are still unknown.
